On 5 August 2026, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published Policy Statement 26/16: Changes to information flows for UK equity IPOs (PS26/16).
Background
In PS26/16 the FCA responds to feedback to consultation paper (CP) CP26/14. In CP26/14 the FCA outlined proposals to amend its rules on information flows during UK equity initial public offerings (IPOs). In particular, the FCA set out proposals to:
- Amend COBS 11A.1.4FR: this would remove the 7-day waiting period between the publication of an approved registration document/prospectus and connected research.
- Remove COBS 11A.1.4BR – COBS 11A.1.4ER: this would mandate that syndicate banks intending to publish connected IPO research share the same information with a range of unconnected analysts as they do with their own research analysts.
- Rectify a technical issue in amendments made to COBS 12.2.21R: a change to this rule related to investment research occurred when transferring the MiFID Organisational Regulation (Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/565) to the FCA Handbook and the FCA considers that the current drafting may be interpreted as more restrictive as intended.
CP26/14 also included discussion questions on the remaining aspects of the 2018 IPO information flows rules, including in relation to timing of the registration document and COBS 12 restrictions on pre-mandate analyst/issuer communications.
Final rules
The FCA reports that almost all respondents supported its proposals and as a result it will implement the changes as proposed in CP26/14.
The FCA also reports that it received 12 responses to its discussion questions. It states that it is not consulting on any further changes at this time, but it will consider this feedback as part of future work.
Next steps
The changes in PS26/16 come into force immediately.
Firms and issuers will still have the option to engage with unconnected analysts during the IPO process, but this will no longer be mandated, and any conditions should be negotiated on a commercial basis.